Fuel materials may take on a variety of forms, from simple gasses such as hydrogen to complex mixtures including aviation fuels. Due to their wide range of chemical compositions, chemical fuels may be generated through a variety of processes and may require facilities dedicated to synthesizing only a small number of possible fuel types. Such facilities may be optimized to generate only the fuels to which they are dedicated. Additionally, each facility may require a specific set of precursor materials for fuel synthesis.
Typically, carbon-based fuels rely on thermal methods for their synthesis. Such methods may include pyrolysis, cracking, and endothermic synthesis steps. Such processes may generate excessive heat as a by-product of their synthetic methods. Further, such thermal chemistry-based synthetic methods may not be efficient even for an optimized facility.
It is therefore desirable to develop a high efficiency method for generating gaseous and/or liquid fuel from a limited number of readily available feed stocks. Improved efficiency may be obtained in part by having the fuel generating facility also produce at least some electric power to lessen the facility's dependence on exterior power supplies.